As a fully absorbent headphone experience, there is plenty to uncover, but like its title suggests, No Further Ahead Than Today works just as well as a mindful, almost meditative experience.

It all makes for a more focused--but far from simple--album that's a gorgeous, confident step forward for Illum Sphere.

Though hushed, lush, and intimate psych-folk may not have been anyone's first choice for where Hanson's path might lead next, The Unborn Capitalist from Limbo is beautiful and strange, and proves to be a trip well worth taking.

Ruins is an undeniably heavy bit of business, and if given time to work its magic, it will both infect and inspire.

With their debut album, E create urgent music for chaotic, uncertain times.

Though Body/Head reject the notion of definitive versions of their songs, No Waves might be the album that captures their spirit to its fullest. Equally taut and flowing, this is improvisation at its instinctive best.

At no point during the album do Hamilton and crew feel like they're phoning it in, but the visceral moments are fleeting, and often tempered by melodic detours that fail to swing back around to assess the damage.

The whole point of doing acoustic versions is usually to lay bare the material, deconstructing it down to its roots, but for the most part, Acoustic feels a bit too polished and adjusted.

Mr. Entertainment and his bombast do not disappoint. The Heavy Entertainment Show is his most invigorated album in years, a truer return to the pop realm than 2012's Take the Crown.

Pavo Pavo have achieved a collection that eschews the obvious, being undoubtedly hip yet simultaneous geeky in its references, and the resulting work is a real gem.

The "uh oh"s that punctuate "Hyper Dark"'s shattered balladry hint at Jessica Rabbit's state of emergency, while "Torn Clean" is one of the band's prettiest songs yet. Contrasts like these have been Sleigh Bells' modus operandi since the beginning, but Jessica Rabbit's mix of brashness and finesse proves they can still thrill.

While the production is just a tad too polished to feel as gritty as Miller's best '70s works, the music is nevertheless in that vein and many of the songs are quite good, particularly the gospel-drenched Elton John number "Where Do the Guilty Go?" and the swaggering "Way Past Midnight" (performed with Lewis).

Romare's disjointed sound takes some getting used to, but it's often bewitching, and Love Songs, Pt. 2 is his best effort yet.

Highway Songs encapsulates Pajo's life experiences into a poignant travelog, and considering all that he's been through, it's a life-affirming work.

Sting sifts through familiar territory with songs of protest sitting alongside songs of yearning and love and it all adds up to record that's simultaneously unassuming and revealing: through its modest nature, 57th & 9th stands as testaments to Sting's inherent gifts as a songwriter and recordmaker.

Certain listeners might bemoan the shortage of uptempo belters here, but one attentive and thorough listen presents a clear justification.

It's easy to stand on the sidelines and say that a more streamlined, ten- to 12-track version of the album would suffice, but one of the many things that's helped to make Hersh such a singular talent over the years is her unwillingness to compromise, and on that front, the punishing and beautiful Wyatt at the Coyote Palace doesn't disappoint.

XAM Duo is a synth lover's dream, a calming balm to the hectic hustle of modern life, and a trippy excursion into the futuristic past.

Jeezy doesn't say much that deviates from previous ice-veined rhymes, but he attacks just about every track with intense focus and ferocity

It delivers an excellent portrait of Wobble as disciple, master, and prophet of dub.

On Telling It Like It Is, Marching Church sounds like a congregation running wild, searching for the truth. Even if they don't know where they'll find it, it's thrilling to join them on the hunt.

The duo's love of huge, fuzzy guitars hasn't dimmed and anyone who shares that love will find Balance to be something pretty special. So will lovers of psychedelic music, fans of dream pop, shoegaze aficionados, and people who want music that will remind them of the past, but take them somewhere new.

From front to back, the quality is so balanced that there are no obvious peaks or lulls, though the tracks that incorporate harp and harpsichord stick out a little more for their uniqueness relative to standard soul-funk revivalism.

As its title suggests, there's an eldritch purity to Older Terrors' combination of post-rock, shoegaze, and metal that makes it some of Esben & the Witch's most ambitious and captivating music.

At first blush, this is not one of Anderson's most immediately engaging albums, but it has a meandering charm that works its magic over time.

"Charlie Brown" is a swirling circle of doom, "I'll Take It and Break It" punishes with its stomping riff, "Bums" races along, while "Nightcrawler" revels in its menacing depravity. All this makes The Deaner Album sound a little excessive but there are also moments of madcap pop ("Bundle of Joy," "You Were There"), twisted country ("Tammy"), and funk ("Mercedes Benz"), all parceled out with expert pacing, so the album plays like a drunken, giddy party.

Pharrell Williams is on the couple's perseverance anthem "Work on It," a wobbly ballad, while Illangelo was involved with "Holy War," where some dulled drums interrupt a mostly acoustic number about backward societal views of war and sex. These songs, like a fair portion of the album's remainder, are not lacking in energy or conviction, but they're raw as in crude.

Become Zero is a stunning album that takes Helen Money's already otherworldly, highly accomplished sound to fascinating new levels.